After thorough deliberation the jury has unanimously awarded the Else Otten Übersetzerpreis 2012 to Christiane Kuby for her translation of Godenslaap by Erwin Mortier. The German translation Götterschlaf appeared in 2010 by publishers DuMont in Cologne.
Every two years, the Flemish Literature Fund (FLF) and the Dutch Foundation for Literature crown the best literary translation of a Dutch novel into German. Christiane Kuby will receive a monetary prize of 5.000 Euros, the award will be handed out in Berlin in January 2013. Since the nineties Christiane Kuby has been translating Dutch-language literature, poetry and nonfiction. She accumulated an impressive translation oeuvre that counts 62 different titles at this moment. Beside Godenslaap by Erwin Mortier, she translated work by Kader Abdolah, Jeroen Brouwers, Stephan Enter, Carl Friedman, Marie Kessels, Herman Koch, Tomas Lieske, Tonnus Oosterhoff, Leo Pleysier, Helga Ruebsamen, P.F. Thomése , Jan Verplaetse and many others.
The jury members for the Else Otten Übersetzerpreis 2012 were Prof. Dr. Heinz Eickmans (chairman), translators Andreas Ecke and Waltraud Hüsmert, and critic Hermann Wallmann.
The Else Otten Übersetzerpreis was called to life in 1999 by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. It is funded by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Flemish Literature Fund. The prize has previously been awarded to Andreas Ecke, Waltraud Hüsmert, Hanni Ehlers, Helga van Beuningen, Marlene Müller-Haas and Gregor Seferens.
Else Otten (1873-1931) was one of the most active literary translators, from Dutch into German, of the past century. She translated Majesty by Louis Couperus (Majestät, 1895) and literary work by Frederik van Eeden, Justus van Maurik and Herman Heijermans.
A list of translations by Christiane Kuby can be found in the translations database of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. The database also contains a list of novels of Erwin Mortier translated into English by Ina Rilke.
More information
- Dutch Foundation for Literature, Peter Bergsma, director Translator’s House Amsterdam, tel. +31 20 473 97 40, [email protected] or Hanneke Marttin, tel. +31 20 520 73 00, [email protected]
- Flemish Literature Fund, Greet Ramael, tel. +32 (0)3 270 31 61, [email protected], www.vfl.be
